Residents raise concerns about massive proposed west Calgary mall

Eva Ferguson, Calgary Herald01.20.2014

Crestmont resident Janet Shygera stands near the area where a major mall development is planned on the south side of the Trans-Canada Highway west of Canada Olympic Park. Crestmont and Valley Ridge residents are concerned the sheer size of the project will have negative effects on their communities.Gavin Young
/ Calgary Herald

Crestmont resident Janet Shygera stands near the area where a major mall development is planned on the south side of the Trans-Canada Highway west of Canada Olympic Park. Crestmont and Valley Ridge residents are concerned the sheer size of the project will have negative effects on their communities.Gavin Young
/ Calgary Herald

Crestmont resident Janet Shygera stands near the area where a major mall development is planned on the south side of the Trans-Canada Highway west of Canada Olympic Park. Crestmont and Valley Ridge residents are concerned the sheer size of the project will have negative effects on their communities.Gavin Young
/ Calgary Herald

A massive, $400-million shopping mall proposed to be built just west of Canada Olympic Park is raising concerns among neighbouring communities that the scale and size is just too overwhelming.

While the British Columbia-based developer argues the new centre will be a unique, pedestrian-friendly destination unlike any other in Calgary, people in Crestmont and Valley Ridge worry whether the 55-hectare, commercial and residential complex is more than they need.

“I’m concerned about the size of this. It’s going to be like having shopping on steroids,” said Janet Shygera, a resident of the Crestmont community just west of the proposed site.

“So many people will come to this, whether they’re visiting from Banff or Canmore or other parts of Calgary. It won’t just be local people. And I worry about how much traffic it would bring, because there aren’t a lot of access points.”

Grant Knowles, a member of the planning committee for the Valley Ridge Community Association, added, “we do want some development, we do need more shopping, but this is just much too big.”

And small businesses already settled in the Valley Ridge area are also worried the arrival of a massive mall complex will hurt their bottom lines.

“The reason we survive here is because we have this local market to ourselves. We’re just the small, community restaurant,” said John Panagakos, owner of Van Gogh’s Bar and Grill in Valley Ridge.

“If there’s a big mall, it will devastate us.”

Shape Properties, based in Burnaby, B.C., is proposing to build the new centre, a mixed-use retail, residential complex across the sloped land just west of Canada Olympic Park.

Mike Nygren, director of development with Shape, stresses the look of the project will not be a typical big-box shopping centre, with outdoor store fronts, pedestrian-friendly walkways, bike paths and 80 per cent of parking hidden underground.

“It will be world class, like something you’ve never seen before. We’ll build it in a way so it’s a cool place to hang out. It’ll be walkable, with pathways, store fronts, a main street. It will be a gathering place.”

Nygren added that residential growth beyond Crestmont and Valley Ridge is expected to double over the next few years, meaning a larger, more varied shopping experience will be in demand.

“We want to create a vibrancy, a mix of people. And for that you need a critical mass.”

Nygren added 60 per cent of the site will be maintained as environmental reserve land, including three natural area parks.

But residents worry that the traffic access point — at Crestmont Boulevard for traffic headed east on the Trans-Canada and Valley Ridge Boulevard for traffic headed west — isn’t large enough and will create bottlenecks in the community.

“This is just too big for just one entrance,” said Dave McCarrel, director of planning for Valley Ridge.

“This thing is supposed to be even bigger than Market Mall, and Market Mall has seven access points.”

Area Coun. Ward Sutherland says he will work with the city and the province to reconfigure interchanges as needed.

“I understand the concern around traffic, and I’m not saying this thing is good or bad.

“But we are going to get a lot of growth in this part of the city,” he added, explaining that Valley Ridge, Crestmont, Tuscany and two new communities proposed around Canada Olympic Park will add to the area’s population in the next decade.

Shape Properties is expected to go before the Calgary Planning Commission for a land-rezoning application within the next few months. If plans are given the go-ahead, construction could be complete sometime in 2018.

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